Problem: I've noticed that there's quite a few people who sign up with Astahost, make 10 short posts and then request hosting. Of course they are denied and have unnecessarily wasted their time and our time. For some reason, they didn't have what it takes to click the link to the rules and thoroughly read the rules to find out if Astahost is the place for them.

Suggestion: I propose that upon initial registration with us, an automatic email or PM (or both) be sent to the new member. This message should probably be similar to that found on the Astahost main forum page (under the Hosting Credits paragraph.):

ATTENTION : ASTAHOST is more interested in building a forum with quality members and finest posts rather than to make money by showing Advertisements. Making Dumb posts to get hosting will not help. We respect talented members who have the ability to impress people by their wonderful ideas. If you think you have this in you, you are at the right place! Else, you are requested to go to Trap17.com (Our Partner site) with similar features. All posts are strictly reviewed for Web Hosting Applications. Any member accused of spamming may be banned with an immediate suspension or termination of web hosting account (if hosted). Also Check out, Hottest Paid Web Hosting Offer at Computing Host ( partner site ) [ 50mb space @ $10 / YEAR! ]
PS: Paid Accounts are hosted on separate dedicated servers for unmatched performance and uptime!

The message above could use some editing but the point of it should be: We don't want to waste your time if you're unable to create your own informative, substantial, original posts. Go to www.trap17.com instead.

Possible outcome: I believe that implementing this suggestion would result in an upgrade of the quality of our Astahost forums. Thoughts anybody?

It's a good suggestion....But chances are it won't work....Not many people on the net even read such things....Even I must admit that when I first signed up I really didn't care much for it, n didn't read any of the rules.

But after becoming a active member and getting to know the community I really got used to making better quality posts....I thinkt he fact that I saw people posting good posts around me made me wanna post good ones to...But when I signed up this forum wasn't really even in order and the community wasn't at all active....I remember I had posted in every category there was on one day n when I got back to them the next nobody had respoonded...So yeah.

If we want better posts we need a better way to implement it...So far I think the credit system is the best way.

Thnx for the suggestion though....It was a good one, butI'm not sure the newer members would pay attention to it.

Unless of course we put it in overly large letters in red and black with the words ATTENTION all around it

Then people might care to read it

The thing is that most when they sign up think it is the easy way to get free hosting. But if we tell them to go to Trap17 in they can not post "good" posts, wouldn't that be relocating the issue? Mind you, I have signed up on trap17, but haven't read the topics Also, it depends on who the poster is as well. I mean, someone who is a good contributor to astahost, but makes a few shorter posts... If we enforce the length of posts on them, we may end up losing them. So it is a double edged sword sorta.

I do get fairly annoyed with a alot of the newbies who post one liners or barely more than that with just saying "I agree with that, it is awesome". But do they even notice they got warned? Mostly when they post short posts, I warn them. The next day, I'll check if they made new posts, if they are just the same, I warn again and revoke posting priveledges. Well, that's how I think I should do it (isn't it??).

I've also noticed that we do have non-english members, don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying anything bad about that LOL My Native tongue is Dutch (Flemish to be precise). But maybe they do read the rules and TOS but don't understand it? I don't know, it's just a thought that occured to me.

Oh, I just got an idea that poofed into the odd mind of mine When I set up my room (chatroom) on PalTalk, we also had to read a TOS, and to make sure we DID read it, they used a confirmword, that was "hidden" somewhere in the text. So that you'd actually had to read through it to find it. You needed it to be able to sign up for the room. It would not be highlighted or in a different colour to prevent skimming over the TOS and seeing it that way. Maybe something like this would help? I don't know if it is very possible... I am just building on what SingleDadof2 said

As I stated above,"an automatic email or PM (or both) be sent to the new member." Are you saying that not many people read emails or PMs? Its only one paragraph and it can be streamlined to make more of an impact. I will edit and streamline it if the Astahost admins want me to. Even if only 5 out of 10 people read and heed the message, that's a 50% improvement! Isn't that worth making this plan happen?



Actually, if we want better posts, we need an assortment of ways to implement it. Some already exist (the Rules page, the credit system, the Astahost staff, etc.). I am saying that this is just another tool to help improve the quality of our forums.



The "overly large letters in red and black with the words ATTENTION all around it" might not be a bad idea. Perhaps the top of the PM should say "Free WebHosting May Be Denied If..."



Actually, OpaQue tells those who are denied webhosting to go apply at trap17. The message I suggested in my first post is a quote from Astahost main page. Do you think maybe OpaQue should delete that message from the main page because it relocates the issue?

Now this email/PM message won't totally solve the problem stated in my first post but I think it can significantly improve the situation, unless you like seeing people waste their time and ours.

Please clue me in if you think the automatic email would somehow be a burden on Astahost or any member. Is there a significant cost to this plan that I'm unaware of?
Will this email/PM do more harm than good? plmk

Most people don't read the rules when they sign up for stuff. Even less people read a large page of text. So, I think the best way would be send an e-mail to the members for validation that looks something like this:


Dear member,

You have just signed up at astahost, blah, blah...

We don't want to waste your time if you don't make informative and original posts, so find another host if you cannot do so.






Click this link to validate, blah blah blah

Make sure that you read the rules here.... blah blah

And then the ending.

That way the "warning" would be short and noticable.

Because of all the reasons from previous posts we are using the verify process only after a user asks for hosting

So to sign up there is no confirmation email because a lot of people don't take the time to finalize the transaction.

When they ask for hosting, the approval is sent to the email address they have in the account. That is our confirmation email and it serves to weed out users that put a fake email address. This is one of the reasons you see users post messages like I didn't get the confirmation email. We look at the email they signed up with and the email they put down for the hosting request, if they don't match they may not get hosting anyway. At least not until they update the account with a valid email.

The same people, or should I say type of people, that ask for hosting without reading or posting would do the same even if we had verification and they received an email with the instructions. Most people don't read them anyway I know I don't..

It's also a way to weed out who belongs on trap17 and not here. Trap17 is more relaxed and the topics are a lot less technical than here and it's nothing wrong telling a user that he / she would be better off at trap17 I tell quality users at trap17 to seek hosting here...

We let guests read all forums to entice them to sign up and when they sign up we want them to get hosted. The most important thing we do are when we help a user enough so that he or she got the hosting account. That is why I a lot of times encourage a user to ask for hosting I know I did it to a few that are here as moderators now.

The main purpose for this venture is to give out "free" hosting, it's free for the users when you look at it on a money bases because they pay with time and posts. So anytime we help a user to get hosted here or on trap17 we did our job.

In the end what pays for the servers that we use are the member base and the ads from the adservers. The more members we have the more servers we can get and more money can be made to host more people.

Right now it's important to point people who can't post regularly to the paid option. Most of the servers we use are paid with income from the paid hosting and until we have a larger user base that will contine to happen.


Thank you
Nils

I think that this is a problem in today's society. No one wants to play by the rules, so why even read them?



I don't think that they will read a PM or E-mail from Astahost any more than to skim over it to see if there is something "important" to them, like a text box, or a link that tells the to click her to activate their account, those kind of things.

I feel that this is Partly to blame on the attention span of America. It has gotten so short that if we weren't all staff, I bet that half of you wouldn't read this post, or any other in this thread other than the first. I really don't see any solution other than to make examples of those that don't read the rules by banning them, or removing their posting rights, or totally removing their accounts...

This has been nothing more than my $0.02!!!!

So I had a friend go in for some kind of test. About twenty people were there for the test. Everyone was given a pencil and a test booklet. My friend read the directions on the test and completed the test in no time. After she finished the test, she notice all of the other people doing odd things like counting backwards from 100 outloud, or doing jumping jacks, etc...

She sat there amazed because she assumed everyone had the same test and they did.
The directions read "Please put your pencil down now. Your test is complete. Thank you for participating in this experiment."

The test was to find out how many people read directions.
Her class was 5%.


vujsa

So, why did the other people do those odd things? Was it in another direction after the first one? Did she read the direction? Who did read the directions?

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